Of the 12 players, just three—outfielders Antonio Sucre and Brandol Mezquita and shortstop Angel Rojas—were at the workout, which was at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo. According to multiple sources, several players did not show up to the workout because they are in the middle of their offseason and felt that MLB did not give them sufficient time to prepare themselves to be showcased for clubs.

[Ban Johnson on scheduled doubleheaders:] “Playing two games for one admission cheapens the sport and creates in the minds of the fans the belief that they are not getting their money’s worth out of a single game of nine innings. Double headers have done more to injure professional baseball than any other one thing.

Some of the minor leagues have played the double header card to the limit and owe much of their financial trouble to that fact.”

If you’re not familiar with WAR’s positional adjustment, I recommend you dig more into it on Baseball-Reference. But the gist is this—an average player at shortstop (or catcher, etc.) is more valuable than an average player at first base (or a corner outfield spot) because players who fill those roles are harder to find. I don’t think that’s rocket science, but if it is you can probably feel free to stop reading now.

Joe Morgan was slow to accept analytics, I get it. He was traditional, and he became the whipping boy for every new waver who wanted us to know they were smarter than any of us, like the guy who wrote he hoped Felix Hernandez would lose games because it would prove how insane traditional thinkers had been.

I worked with Joe Morgan for years. We disagreed, sometimes heartily, always with respect. I get his recent letter to Hall of Fame voters, I ...

Secretary John B. Foster of the Giants may be able to start a smart baseball man into a profitable business. John has been forced to turn down two offers which would have given play to his executive abilities. Both the British and French governments were anxious for him to look over the field in those countries with a view to opening professional baseball leagues. Baseball, it seems, is catching on abroad.

But only one thing can prompt him to stop what he’s doing and look up: a loud cheer from the throng of bettors gathered at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, which houses the largest sports betting operation in the world.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

NEW YORK — Major league teams were given homework this weekend by Shohei Ohtani.

The agent for the star pitcher and outfielder asked for written explanations in English and Japanese on how Ohtani would fit into each organization intending to bid and what makes the team attractive, according to details obtained by The Associated Press.

Friday, November 24, 2017

“It’s hard to answer,” says Cardinals GM Michael Girsch. “We try to think of players as a combination of skills and what those skills ultimately do. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking, ‘How hard is it to find X?’

“I can’t shop for a skill,” Girsch continues. “I have to shop for a player and so I don’t think of the world in terms of skills very often.”

“It is just like listening to a drum corps when you come to bat with Ray Schalk catching,” writes Oscar Vitt. “He is always whistling. He uses a trill note and occasionally bursts into song. A batter has to be on his guard all the time to keep his mind on the game, for this boy Schalk is always chatting or doing something behind the bat.

It’s hard, looking at that group now, to appreciate how weird a list of names it is. Of course, Hector Neris and Corey Knebel look like closers now, now that we’ve seen them do it and carried them for months on our fantasy rosters. But 12 months ago, Neris and Knebel had two career saves apiece. So let’s try this: I’m going to predict the 30 pitchers who will be closers in September 2018, and you’re going to look at me like I’m insane:

Which brings us back to today, and the recent trade of Juan Then (17-year-old 2016 international signee) and JP Sears (21-year-old drafted in 2017) for Nick Rumbelow (26 years old, 15 2⁄3 innings of major league experiences). In an article in the Seattle Times, prior to this trade, Dipoto said, in discussing his moves over the last season “‘We got younger and we didn’t get younger at the A level. We got younger at the big-league level.’” It’s true; Dipoto ...

Major League Baseball continues to hit home runs on the business side. According to sources at the league, 2017 marks the 15th consecutive year MLB has seen record gross revenues, surpassing the $10 billion mark for the first time. By comparison, the league saw revenues approaching $9.5 billion at the end of the 2015 season.

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Of the 1,069 propagandizing words sent Tuesday to Baseball Hall of Fame voters urging them to just say no to steroids, none encapsulated the museum’s winning combination of self-reverence and tone-deafness quite as blatantly as the six in which it called itself: “The most sacred place in Baseball.” If, by sacred place, the Hall means one in which racists, wife beaters, drunks, gamblers and purveyors of manifold moral turpitude otherwise are celebrated, well, Cooperstown is a shining ...

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

If this were Dave Borges, I’d assume he’s talking about Schilling again. But instead, it’s just a basic HOF summary article, with the strangest headline I’ve seen so far. The identity of the “idiot” is not stated anywhere. Any guesses?

Ban Johnson, president of the American league will ask the war department to grant exemption from military service to 18 men on each of the 16 major league clubs, in order that baseball may continue during the war.

That Ban Johnson’s suggestion for exemption of big league baseball players should be the beginning of his end was the official view expressed at the provost marshal general’s office today.

Maitan’s stock has clearly dropped. It will be interesting to see whether teams will wait for Otani to sign

By going back into the international amateur free agent pool, teams will have to use their bonus pools for such players to sign Maitan or any of the others. Since the signing period began back in July, millions of dollars have already been spent, so teams will be somewhat limited. The top five teams in terms of remaining pools, as of Tuesday, are:
Texas Rangers, $3.535 million
New York ...

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

As first reported by MLB Network insider Ken Rosenthal and subsequently confirmed by MLB.com with multiple sources, the MLBPA wanted MLB and NPB officials to change certain aspects of the agreement, including a shorter window for players to be posted that would be less disruptive to the pace of the domestic free-agent market, as well as a rule that would prevent NPB teams from keeping a player if teams are unsatisfied with the size of the MLB contract (and, in turn, the amount of “commission” ...

It’s really tough to have a debate on Twitter. Comments, posts, and replies get so disjointed. I’m not sure Bill is actually as “steadfast” in the absolute certainty of his position. Now, he may have been at the beginning of this debate but, as the discussion has evolved, his comments, IMO, have softened as he’s heard/read other people’s comments. Again, my opinion.

In any event, Sean makes his case.

Now through years of arguing and debate, I have come to the conclusion that these two ...

I am a big fan of WAR and even have my own WAR system. Although I don’t agree that we *need* a better value system for use during MVP discussions, I also believe having alternative statistical views helps us find better answers to very complex questions.

Having said that, if Votto was placed on the Astros the outcome of his performance would actually help the Astros get more wins than his production buys with the Reds. That’s because the Astros overall offense would be more efficient in ...